Check out who donated to "Protect Our Schools". After reading, ask yourself why these partisan organizations and Unions are fighting against YOU having school choice for your family. They all oppose Amendment 2.
The usual Unions:
NEA: $5,665,000 JCTA: $250,000 KEA: $150,000
But then who are all these other orgs? Glad you asked!
America Votes partners with The Human Rights Campaign, LGBTQ+ Victory Fund, The NEA, Planned Parenthood, and more. https://americavotes.org
The Movement Voter Project who's number one objective is to "Mobilize youth, voters of color, immigrant voters, LGBTQ+ voters, and other pivotal constituencies to carry the Harris-Walz ticket over the finish line." https://movement.vote
"The Ballot Initiative Strategy Center (BISC) is a nationwide movement-building infrastructure organization that leverages ballot measures across the United States to strengthen democracy; center people of color, queer, low-income, immigrant, Indigenous, and other marginalized communities; advance racial equity; build and transform power; and galvanize a new progressive base."
They have articles posted on their website that advocate against Republicans, and support abortion access. https://ballot.org
Vote Save America's mission: "Whether it’s winning critical Senate races, regaining the U.S. House, or stopping Republicans at the state level, Vote Save America is here to make it as easy as possible to volunteer however suits you best." https://votesaveamerica.com
And then we have the Council For Better Education, which is partly run by Marty Polio and Tom Shelton. Their organization sued the state over our school choice programs, and it's their organization that doesn't want YOU to have school choice. https://kycbe.org
Why homeschooling families should support school choice
By Gary Houchens, Ph.D.
Homeschooling has surged in popularity in Kentucky and across the nation, and for good reasons. Many families, dissatisfied with the education options offered from public and private schools, have opted to do it themselves.
The reasons families choose to homeschool, and the various approaches they use, vary widely. But the one thing all these families seem to have in common is a fierce commitment to protect their right to educate their children according to their own values, principles and methods.
That’s why Kentucky homeschooling parents are wisely asking thoughtful questions about the upcoming school choice constitutional amendment.
Amendment 2, which will appear on the Nov. 5 ballot, asks voters to change the state constitution clarifying that lawmakers may, at some point in the future, pass legislation providing support for eligible families to access education options outside the traditional public schools.
It’s important to note that Amendment 2 does not create any new programs, contrary to the noise made by its opponents. It doesn’t set up a voucher plan, fund charter schools or include provisions that affect homeschooling families.
Amendment 2 simply makes it possible for the state legislature to consider school choice policies without the interference of courts which have previously prevented the implementation of even the most modest bills that would empower parents with education options. After Amendment 2 passes, lawmakers will have to decide what kinds of school choice will be appropriate for Kentucky, which is currently one of the only states in the country without such programs.
A handful of states have included homeschooling provisions in their school choice laws. Arizona, Florida, Idaho, New Hampshire, Ohio, Utah and West Virginia all offer vouchers, scholarships or some other form of direct payment to homeschooling families purchasing curricula, instructional materials and other expenses associated with educating their children.
Other states, including Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Ohio and Minnesota provide a tax credit to homeschooling families, reducing their overall income tax liability to offset their out-of-pocket education costs. Some of these programs are income-based, while others are available to all families. It's difficult to know what percentage of homeschooling families choose to participate in these programs, but many do. Families make enormous sacrifices to educate their children at home while continuing to pay taxes that support the public education system.
Naturally, homeschooling parents want to know what strings might be attached to participating in such programs. Homeschooling regulations vary widely by state, but states that include homeschoolers in their school choice programs typically do not add any new requirements for participating beyond those already established by law.
It is impossible to predict what kind of school choice program Kentucky will adopt because of Amendment 2. Whether some homeschooling families will be eligible to participate is unknown for now. What we know for sure, however, is that if homeschooling parents for whatever reason don’t like the conditions for participating in such a program, they may decline to do so.
Homeschooling parents should support expanding education freedom in Kentucky, even though we don’t know yet if homeschoolers will be included in a future school choice program. That’s because homeschooling families know better than anyone else the importance of being able to choose the right learning environment for their children, and how no one should have the authority to make that decision but the parent.
Far too many Kentucky children are trapped in schools that don’t meet their needs and parents lack the means to do anything about it. That’s wrong, and Amendment 2 paves the way for making it right.
Gary Houchens, a Bluegrass Institute Scholar, is professor in the School of Leadership and Professional Students and director of the Educational Leadership doctoral program at Western Kentucky University.
A frank and honest discussion about what Amendment 2 does and doesn’t do. This should be especially helpful to those who have chosen homeschooling. And there’s a special video from Nick Freitas at the end that really drives home the absurdity of our current educational system.
WATCH Voice for Change: Dr. Jerry Stephenson on Amendment 2, empowering parents
“I am not a person, when I see something wrong, to just close my eyes and walk away from it.”
Flawed report ignores school choice savings, student achievement
John Garen* Board of Scholars, Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions September 2024
Despite the fact that Amendment 2 doesn’t set up school choice programs, opponents of education freedom opine such policies would decimate public education funding in Kentucky, while ignoring the savings and academic achievement being produced in a multitude of states where parents have such options.
A policy brief released today by the Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions, Kentucky’s free-market think tank, responds to claims by the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy designed to stoke opposition to Amendment 2.
In his report, “Fiscal Effects of School Choice: Doomsday Speculation Versus Reality,” Bluegrass Institute Scholar John Garen, Ph.D., addresses inaccurate and misleading assertions made in the KCEP’s flawed report, summarized below.
Claims that school choice programs in other states are bankrupting state budgets.
The KCEP analysis implies education savings accounts (ESAs), which allow a portion of state education funds to “follow” students for schooling expenses – including private school tuition, are bankrupting the education budget in Arizona, where parents can choose from a multitude of school-choice programs.
However, Arizona’s Department of Education ran a surplus at the end of the state’s fiscal year on June 30, which actually helped shrink an overall state budget deficit.
In Arizona, anti-school-choice forecasters “made several key errors that led to faulty predictions which became clear when confronted with reality,” Garen reports. “The Kentucky report makes similar fundamental errors such that it cannot provide useful guidance. Essentially, the fiscal costs of school choice are exaggerated while the fiscal benefits are ignored.”
Exaggerated assumptions that the nearly 98,000 students currently attending a nonpublic school in Kentucky would receive a voucher, thus greatly multiplying the cost of this type of school choice program.
KCEP report “exaggerates the fiscal cost of potential school choice programs by assuming 100% eligibility and 100% participation,” Garen notes. “The first is sometimes true and the second never has been.”
Most well-established programs in other states have utilization rates in the 2% to 6% range, though some cases are around a 20% rate, he added.
Bluegrass Institute President Jim Waters added that “assuming 100% eligibility and utilization greatly diminishes the credibility of KCEP’s approach, removes any sense of objectivity and sends a clear signal to reasonable Kentuckians, including their policymakers, that the conclusions reached by such exaggeration cannot be taken seriously and certainly should not guide decisions that will affect families for generations to come.”
A failure to factor in potential savings from school-choice programs. In its review of all school choice programs through 2018, EdChoice found that virtually all the policies offered their states net fiscal savings.
Vicki Alger, Ph.D., a Bluegrass Institute Visiting Fellow, national expert on education choice programs and an Arizona resident herself, notes her state’s ESA program “generates an estimated savings of $1.25 for every dollar spent – a staggering 125 percent return on investment.”
Alger estimates the program has saved the Grand Canyon State an estimated $41 million due primarily to the fact that “choice programs typically cost thousands of dollars less per pupil than public schools,” she notes. Also, an Arizona ESA sets aside just $7,200 for those who take the school-choice option – about half the amount spent by the state on each traditional K-12 student, on average.
In his report, Garen estimates that an ESA program in Kentucky reflecting realistic participation rates would offer “a $116 million benefit as opposed to a KCEP estimate of a $700 million fiscal cost."
Completely ignoring the positive impact of other states’ education-choice policies in improving educational outcomes.
Recent studies show that as Florida has offered parents additional options, students' outcomes in traditional public schools have improved. In the 1990s, Florida’s public school test scores on the “Nation’s Report Card” were below the national average, and below or near Kentucky’s. However, as Florida has expanded school choice, its outcomes – including for minority students – have surpassed Kentucky’s and are above the national average.
“Opponents like the KCEP never talk about student achievement and how to improve it,” Waters said. “It’s all about propping up the current system and protecting the jobs it creates. Instead, we should be funding students over systems.”
Read the entire report here.
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Bluegrass Institute works with Kentuckians, grassroots organizations, and business owners to advance freedom and prosperity by promoting free-market capitalism, smaller government and defense of personal liberties.
Introduction
Welcome to the 123s of School Choice! This resource is designed to be a one-stop shop for all the existing research on private school choice in the United States. This year’s edition is updated with the research published since our last edition. We provide information about the scope and purpose of this resource below.
Since the first modern-day voucher program launched in Milwaukee in 1990, researchers have studied private school choice programs. Few American education reforms have been studied as much as choice.1 Even fewer, if any, have such a broad array of possible outcomes for students, schools, taxpayers and families.
Researchers from across the country have published almost 175 empirical studies on the effectiveness of these programs.
Click on the graph below to be taken to the edchoice website. There you will find unadulterated results of 175 studies of the net effects of school choice.
Opponents of school choice claim there will be massive teacher layoffs and a negative financial impact on our teachers. Experience in other school choice states says otherwise and the Bluegrass institute has the research to support that. Click the image above to see the complete report.
An Update on Florida vs Kentucky
click image to be taken to full update.
KET’s Kentucky Edition coverage of the School Choice issue featuring Dr. Gary Houchens. Click the image below for video.
A very special thank you to Tonja Tuttle, Dr. Gary Houchens, Mark Doggett and all the good folks at Warren County Conservatives for the following articles.
SCHOOL CHOICE MYTH BUSTING
● No school, no teacher, no matter how good can be all things to all students and meet the child’s diverse needs.
● Parents should have access to various educational choices.
● Most democratic countries have a system of providing public dollars to support a plurality of education options. 3 arguments FOR school choice
● Effectiveness: Public schools are like a monopoly, a one size fits all, where education is inefficient, change comes slowly, and primitive accountability structures. Can a public school be responsive in meeting the NEEDS of every child? NO
● Fairness: affluent families have school choice–$$$$. Can a public school be fair in meeting the needs of students from lower income, lower performing schools? NO
● Consistency: Consider “health care” (Medicare/Medicaid), there is no stipulation for the doctor being selected. Consider “food stamp recipients”, there is no stipulation for a certain grocery store. Consider “Pell Grant & GI Bill”, there is no stipulation for a particular university, public or private. But, in K-12, no consistency with choice. Various policy (laws) FOR expansions in public funded education
● Homeschool supports (10 states): HS families receive some $$ for HS costs, or give HS students access to extra-curricular activities, or academic courses.
● Charter schools (45 states): Tuition free public schools independent of the local school district, which allows innovation and responsiveness to student needs.
● Tax Credits (21 states): Tax credit to encourage private donations (scholarships) to help students attend private schools.
● Vouchers (14 states, DC): Set amount of education $$$ directly to families to offset education costs.
● Education Savings Account (11 states): Like a voucher, wider eligibility criteria, border options for how ESA is spent.
● Open Enrollment (43 states): This is KY only policy. Student can attend public school other than the one assigned IF a seat available. KY Supreme Court ruled all of the above options are illegal under state constitution except “open enrollment.” First, a constitutional amendment is needed stating NO PART of the state constitution can be interpreted to block legislature for funding education options outside of public schools. Then, lawmakers decide which school choice policy is best for KY. FACTS/MYTHS SCHOOL CHOICE
● School choice DOES NOT drain money from public schools. Schools of choice educate students at lower/pupil cost, reserving more money for school districts. Some students leave, but the net financial result is a positive one for taxpayers.
● Private school choice DOES NOT violate separation of church/state. Not in the U. S. Constitution. Ky State Constitution prohibits flow of public funds to faith based schools. Section 189, KY State Constitution, the voucher program difficult to pass. The Charter Schools/Tax Credit options are the best due to State Constitution. Ky State Constitution goes farther than U.S. Constitution to prohibit $$$$ to faith-based schools.
● General trend in research indicates student learning increases when school choice is introduced.
● School choice DOES NOT fracture society. Research suggests students who attend choice schools demonstrate greater lifetime levels of social tolerance and civic engagement.
● School choice could serve students with disabilities based on policy developed and parent/child selecting school not fully compliant with IDEA.
● School choice environment needs an Accountability System in place
● Mechanisms to educate parents concerning school options need to be created.
● Transportation funding could be included in the amount of money that follows each child to his/her school of choice.
● Giving parents a choice among public schools run by a local district is NOT school choice.
● School choice is NOT a solution to all education problems. The debate about whether families should have access to an array of schools should end, and the focus should be on ensuring that all of the options are great. Kentucky will NOT give up the fight to make sure every student/family is empowered to find the learning environment that best meets their needs. Kentucky will BREAK DOWN barriers and find ways to fund students, not systems.